The Hills mayor in push to ease gridlock

THE Hills mayor Michelle Byrne is calling on engineers to help reverse gridlock on our major roads.

Cr Byrne will ask senior Roads and Maritime Services engineers to look at local roads, including Windsor and Old Windsor roads, and report back to the council on why it is taking people so long to get around.

She was one of 11 people on the council's local traffic committee on March 17 who recommended the council ask the RMS to investigate traffic lights for the Norwest Boulevarde/Lexington Drive intersection at Bella Vista — for which the council has already collected about $5 million from developer contributions — together with the phasing of signals on Old Windsor Road.

"We've been inundated with complaints about traffic throughout The Hills since school returned in late January," Cr Byrne said.

"Some of it is explained, but I have noticed Windsor and Old Windsor roads are not coping.

"We haven't had that many new residents move in over the break.

"Whether it is a light phasing issue . . . something has happened over Christmas and something needs to be done."

On March 4, the News reported about 50 people a day were signing up to new Facebook page Nightmare on Lexington to vent about traffic on Lexington Drive.

Click here to read how The Hills Council, Roads and Maritime Services, and Norwest Association responded to comments made on the Nightmare on Lexington page.

"I think the mayor's ideas are great and I hope something comes from it," Facebook page founder Louise McDonald said.

Lexington Drive and Celebration Drive are local roads under the care and control of The Hills Council.

Nearby Norwest Boulevard was reclassified from a local road to a state road in 2010 after it was recognised the road would connect two state roads as developments and traffic in the area increase.